IIT-Madras’ Team Avishkar Hyperloop has qualified for the European Hyperloop Week competition being held from July 19 to 25.
The team of 40 students had collaborated from their home during the pandemic. The team will participate virtually in the wake of travel restrictions being in force owing to COVID-19.
Team Avishkar Hyperloop is from the Centre for Innovation at the institute, which is working on an indigenous design and development of a self-propelled, autonomous hyperloop pod.
The team is working on a detailed study of cost, energy, demand and other business aspects for a hyperloop corridor between Bengaluru and Chennai. It has estimated that the travel time between the cities could be reduced to 30-minute ride using hyperloop pod.
Faculty advisor of Avishkar Hyperloop said the students had shown their mettle and verve in accomplishing the task against all odds.
A fifth mode of transportation, hyperloop is a high-speed train that travels in a near-vacuum tube. The reduced air resistance allows the capsule inside the tube to reach speeds of more than 1,000 kmph.
Elon Musk of Tesla first proposed the idea of hyperloop in 2013 through a White Paper – ‘Hyperloop Alpha.’
IIT Madras’ team was the only Asian contestant to qualify for the finals of SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition 2019.
The European Hyperloop Week is being organised by four European student teams in partnership with companies such as Virgin Hyperloop and AECOM.
Deloitte India is supporting Team Avishkar Hyperloop this year.
Neel Balar, a third year student of engineering design department at the institute, who is leading the team, said they were focussed on design of the hyperloop infrastructure.
Kishan Thakkar, a fourth year student from the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering department, said 70% of the budget was taken up for creating infrastructure such as tubes and pylons.
